Thinspiration Vs Fitspiration Psychology Content Analysis

Document Type:Lab Report

Subject Area:Psychology

Document 1

As such, it becomes categorical to bodies found in such groups of content are thoroughly evaluated and understood. This is instrumental as it will provide effective interventions as well as prevention techniques that can be utilized to reduce such forms of body shaming. With this in mind, it is the objective of the current study to identify and compare the fat shaming, weight stigma as well as thin praise used in both thinspiration and fitspiration post on social media platforms. It is essential to note that the study will focus on Pinterest and Tumblr as the primary social media platform. This study is carried out with the hypothesis that despite the differences between the two weight inspiration concepts, they both have similar outcomes effect of inflicting weight stigma on perspective Pinterest and Tumblr users by using thin praisal and fat shaming phrases.

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On social media, unlike conventional mass media, users are the source as well as receivers of information. They actively shape online communication and thus increases autonomy, self-efficacy as well as the personal agency. Today going online, one is immediately exposed to various thin-idealized female figures of celebrities, people within their network, as well as those they do not know. As such, one can argue that the emergence of social media technologies has enhanced the exposure that adolescent girls have regarding given beauty ideals. It is essential to note that in social media inspiration imagery is always shared with the objective of inspiring users to realize given, yet often an achievable body type. The concept of fitspiration inspires users to realize alleged fit body.

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The concept utilizes images that inspire users to exercise and practice healthy nutrition. Over the years, the concept has been utilized on various social media platforms and has been considered as a positive type of content as compared to images of thinspiration (Tiggemann & Zaccardo 2015). However, in recent year, distain towards fitspiration has constantly increased with various studies observing that it may result in an enhanced negative mood, body dissatisfaction as well as reduced self-esteem and state appearance. To have a better understanding of the increased distain towards fitspiration, its physical attributes can be utilized to explain it. Exposure to such content is observed to be closely associated with reduced body satisfaction as well as decreased self-esteem. As such, it becomes critical that the messages feature in such contents are well understood so as to enable people as well as relevant authorities to come up with interventions and preventive techniques that can be utilized to reduce the effects of fitspiration and thinspiration on social media users.

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Methodology Sample For the current study, sampled images included those with preferred hashtags for thinspiration and fitspiration from the two social platforms being focused on by the study including Pinterest and Tumblr. The two platforms were settled on because of their social penetration as well as their utilization of hashtags in sharing critical information. It is essential to note that at the start of the study over 600 images were captured from a list of more than 500 different social media profiles across Pinterest and Tumblr. Toned bodies were utilized to describe muscular bodies while those low in body fats were thought of to be thin bodies. As such, the study thought of bodies as thin and muscular. In as much as there might be various types of bodies available, the current study only focused on shrill and well-built bodies as they were the solitary type realized in the primary scoping assessment of the imageries.

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Additionally, fitspiration and thinspiration content are meant to be aspirational in nature and thus the focus on the two body types as they are likely to feature in the imagery. Coding for the share of the body presented in the images was done as a pointer to objectification of the physique earlier utilized as a cypher in former evaluations. Data achieving software Evernote was utilized in the collection and archiving of sample images for a period of six months. The codebook was then utilized to evaluate the samples. To reduce the impact of the exposure to the imagery, the study during its evaluation randomized the images. For example, if the investigators were to be exposed to thin bodies constantly, the likelihood that they would think of a thin body as larger than it should be is significantly high.

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On the other hand, to realize inter-rater reliability a second coder was utilized to evaluate 10% of the study sample. Based on the results, the study observed a momentous upshot of sort of content on various imageries with a shrill frames. A comparison using pairwise revealed that content with thinspiration hashtag had more thin bodies displayed as compared to the images with the fitspiration hashtag. Regarding muscle existence of well-built bodies, the study also observed a substantial outcome of sort of content on various imageries with a well-built body. Content with fitspiration hashtag was observed to have a significant share of well-built bodies as equated to those in thinspiration group. As such, this can be regarded as a suggestion that fitspiration content is more concerned with muscular physic as compared to thinspiration content that places more emphasis on thin ideals.

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Discussion The results realized in the current study reveals a consistent difference between fitspiration and thinspiration content. As observed in the study's findings, thinspiration content was characterized by more thin objectified bodies. On the other hand, it is essential to note that there were some similarities between fitspiration and thinspiration content across the codes used thus revealing similarities in the idealization of the female body. The similarities observed in the coding of fitspiration and thinspiration content particularly regarding bone protrusion provide a suggestion of there being a subgroup of fitspiration content similar to thinspiration concerning the romanticism of extremely thin body types. Given the acceptance and popularity of fitspiration content, such subgroups can pose potential dangers to users of social media.

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It has replicated the observations made by Ghaznavi and Taylor (2015) as a noteworthy share of shrill objectification were realized in the thinspiration content. The less pronounced effect observed in bone protrusion can be argued to be as a result of the various platforms used for evaluation. Similarly, the current research provides a reflection on the observations made by Deighton-Smith and Bell (2017) where a significantly huge share of fitspiration groups were cyphered as thin bodies and muscular. To add to the existing body of literature the current study develops these studies by carrying out a direct comparison between fitspiration and thinspiration content. This is instrumental in highlighting the fact that compared to thinspiration, fitspiration images do not significantly inflict shrill and reified bodies on social media consumers.

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Additional studies are also needed to further realize possible alternative interventions that can be used to reduce the impact of thinspiration and fitspiration idealization of body types among the younger generation. Conclusion In conclusion, it is apparent that compared to thinspiration content, the fitspiration group has less thin and objectified bodies. In as much as the two groups had their similarities in terms of idealization of given body types, thinspiration is considered to have more impact of having a thin and muscular body. The findings of the current study reveal that fitspiration content generally has fewer unhealthy body types as compared to thinspiration content. However, certain subgroups exist in fitspiration that have similar characteristics and attributes to thinspiration content of idealizing unattainable body types.

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